ISLAMABAD, Jul 11 (APP):The political parties should adopt technical and vocational education as top priority in their election manifestos, said Director General, National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema on Wednesday.
Addressing a press conference, Chief of the NAVTTC said that country’s future lies in the skills development sector.
He urged the political parties to think about the future of the country’s 65 percent youth as neglecting these youngsters could fall them in the hands of terrorists and extremists. The technical and vocational sector has enough strength to change the fate of the country by engaging youth in skills development, he emphasized.
He underlined the need for announcement of a special package by the political parties for skills development sector to alleviate poverty and boost the economy.
According to the foreign experts, a huge number of unemployed youth would be the burden on Pakistan’s economy, he said and stressed that the issue needs to be resolved on urgent basis, he said.
He said that for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the National TVET Policy has been approved by the Parliament which would be helpful to boost the sector. He said that the industrial sector is strengthened through establishment of Sector Skills Councils. NAVTTC, he said, has taken far reaching steps to reform skills sector on modern lines. Due to ongoing skills development programmes of NAVTTC in different sectors of country, a vast majority of youth are becoming financially independent, Cheema informed.
After analyzing the different modules across the world, we have reached the conclusion that the youth need to be engaged in different sectors by providing them market oriented skills, he remarked.
Sharing the performance of NAVTTC during last two and half years, he said that we had taken concrete measures to strengthen NAVTTC which produced positive results. We are providing international standard training to 100,000 youth annually and the number would be further increased in near future, he vowed.
He said that efforts are being made for affiliation of Pakistan’s world class technical institutes with those of Europe and Australia and other countries so that the youth can find jobs in those countries. By signing these agreements, NAVTTC certificates would be accepted in other countries, he added.
He lauded the role of NAVTTC partner’s including Giz, Germany, Netherland and other countries for supporting in uplifting of the sector. To cater the needs of modern era, NAVTTC is introducing High-End Technology courses including Mechatronics, Robotics, Industrial Automation, Restaurant Management and Heavy Machinery Operation, he informed the media persons.
He said that thousand of Paramedics and nurses will be trained in view of national and global demand for paramedics. However, he said a centre of excellence are being established in all provinces to raise the standards of training adding a state of art institute for hospitality is also being built with the assistance of Turkey. The skills competition have improved the standards the training along with inspiring the youth towards TVET sector, he said. It has also increased the employment of youth and they are earning between Rs 20,000 to 100,000. We are building strong relations with industries, he said and lauded their role in curriculum preparation and training opportunities, he added.
We are supporting the provincial governments by upgrading their institutes and labs, Chief of the NAVTTC said.
He stressed the need to train the maximum number of youth to meet the needs of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). CPEC as technical skills is only way to get job in CPEC